A couple of years ago, I gave a talk in a Data & AI conference on how to make steady progress with data over three horizons in any organization. The three horizons of progressing with data are:
The three horizons framework for data progression
1. Use what you have: Start with today's data
Start with today's data. But don't let data insights stop at senior executives—make relevant data insights accessible across the business, especially to those who produce the data. Broad adoption creates traction and builds belief in the power of analytics.
You probably will not have the bandwidth to serve all centrally, so you need a combination of providing initial insights but also developing self-service capabilities to multiply your resources.
2. Improve what you have: Data will never be perfect, but it can always be better
For example, if you sit on unstructured dump of data, you might want to structure it. If nobody owns data or monitors it today, chances are that it is in bad shape. Recognizing this and taking remedial steps will start your improvement journey.
Many enterprises are struggling with this topic. Ownership is one of the root causes, but there are others:
- • Digital systems are no longer aligned with business processes
- • Data entry is too onerous so no one is doing it
- • You simply do not have the systems to organize your data properly
- • People do not have the right knowledge and skills to work with the systems
This is precisely where tools like Augmend come into play. If you're sitting on a pile of unstructured data—contracts, emails, PDFs, or operational documents—Augmend helps you transform that chaos into clean, structured inputs that can be automatically entered into the systems. You can also enrich your data by standardizing your data and linking it with external sources. Augmend enables your Horizon two efforts and sets you up for Horizon 3.
3. Create what you don't yet have: Professionally digitize what's still manual
Professionally digitize what's still manual or invisible by deploying IT systems. That's how you generate tomorrow's data fuel, opening doors to innovation that don't exist today.
Two key challenges to overcome
Challenge 1: Ownership of the three horizons
While the business is ultimately the owner of all horizons, the main drivers for individual horizons sit in different and potentially not-well-connected places:
- • Digital teams drive usage
- • Data governance ensures improvement
- • Traditional IT is key in data creation
So, the overall strategy and oversight is often missing.
Challenge 2: Timing
Although the benefit of three horizons is spread over the entire time scale, you must direct your efforts to all three horizons today! Improving data takes time, and putting in IT systems even more.
Smart leaders aren't just creating and optimizing dashboards with today's clean data—they're working on the next horizons too. If you're tackling unstructured inputs and want to automate how data enters your enterprise systems, Augmend might be worth a closer look.
Ready to transform your data across all three horizons? Book a demo to see how Augmend can help your organization achieve data excellence. For more on why comprehensive data analysis requires structured approaches, check out our analysis of LLM limitations.